Why and how to book a screened hotel babysitter or temporary nanny for your family vacation

Last month I addressed ways to help fit more travel into your family’s new year. Today? A helpful hint on fitting a little more ROMANCE into your family travels as well. If you can’t hop the next flight to Franklyn D. Resort in Jamaica, where an all-inclusive vacation includes your family’s own personal vacation nanny (highly recommended and kids under 6 stay free – my full review here), you may still get significantly more value and enjoyment from your family vacation if you book yourselves a pre-screened vacation babysitter or temporary nanny during your vacation instead.Whether you hire a babysitter to help throughout your vacation, or just during one special part of it, hiring a hotel sitter or on-the-spot nanny can help everyone enjoy the getaway a little more—yes, even your kids!Ask yourself:

• How much more relaxing is a day at the beach, or by the pool, with an extra set of hands to help?
• Want to linger longer at breakfast with your lover (ie. that guy you married a decade ago) while somebody else pushes your fussy baby around the block in the pram or walks your toddler to the park across the street?
• And don’t even get me started on that Broadway show in the evening.
• Or that…(sigh) sunset stroll on the beach watching a tropical sunset while somebody else, just for a short while, cuts up fruit and hotdogs and conjures up a new art project involving feathers with your kids.

But if you’re like most parents I know (including me), you won’t be comfortable with any random babysitter referral a hotel concierge sends your way. So how do you find a “childminder” you can trust in a foreign land? Hopefully our new directory of agencies that provide screened vacation babysitters and short-term nannies with confirmed references will help you find the perfect fit to make your next family vacation feel like… a little bit of a honeymoon as well.Whether you’re seeking a screened hotel sitter in Japan or Johannesburg, in Boston or Banff, or Paris or Puerto Vallarta, please click here to visit the new international directory of agencies offering screened vacation babysitters and vacation nannies, and bookmark for future reference! We’re working hard on finding the agencies and services you’d recommend yourself around the world, so please send us your personal agency recommendations as well!Related posts and pages:

• Tips for hiring a babysitter or nanny on your family’s next vacation
• Vacation Nanny 411: All about FDR Resort’s ultimate all-inclusive inclusion for families
• Travels with Baby international directory of vacation babysitter and nanny agencies

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